From computer science to jewellery mastery: Dubai's top jeweller's unexpected journey

Gulf News

Dubai-based Maha Al Sibai, 53, was born in what she describes as a “city of love, jasmine, poems and stories”. The Damascus of the yesteryears.  She came to the UAE as a young girl along with her father, a former diplomat, 40 years ago. Having travelled around the world with her family, she pursued computer science in Ajman College, as it seemed to be the done thing at the time.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/people/watch-computer-science-student-changes-line-becomes-top-jeweller-in-dubai-1.96370336  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #dubai #jewellery

Transcript

00:00In the year 2006, I felt that I am maybe ready to start my signature on my designs.

00:08So for 6-7 years I have been working for others and they have their names on the designs as big companies.

00:16But I was feeling that it's about time to put my signature and start my own journey.

00:30I am Maha Al-Sibai, a jewellery designer who is based in Dubai for around 40 years now.

00:44I came here with my parents as a child and I continued studying and working.

00:50My education is computer sciences, which has nothing to do with jewellery.

00:56But I come from an art background, I'm an artist, musician and I do sculpture as well.

01:04So I guess maybe that was the start when I noticed that I am related to jewellery

01:11because jewellery is part of that world which has imagination, creation and sculpture.

01:18My serious beginning was in the year 2000 when I participated in a jewellery design contest with the World Gold Council.

01:27I participated in that and I gained the number one on the Middle East,

01:32which made me really understand more about this world.

01:37I got so many offers from different companies to work for as a jewellery designer.

01:43I have worked for several years in jewellery design and that was the beginning of the journey.

01:51Then I realised that I need to do more studies about the jewellery world,

01:57like gemology, diamond, diamond grading, how we deal with metals.

02:02So I confirmed and I supported my work with a lot of studies.

02:08Some of them were in here in Dubai, what was available and I used to travel a lot to have some courses here and there.

02:15Basically I am a gemologist and a diamond grader.

02:19In the year 2006 I felt that I am maybe ready to start my signature on my designs.

02:26For six, seven years I have been working for others and they have their names on the designs as big companies.

02:33But I was feeling that it's about time to put my signature and start my own journey.

02:40And I started in the year 2006.

02:43I was all the time focusing on my story.

02:47So each collection I created had a different concept and a different story.

02:53Jewellery designing is kind of an unspoken language.

02:57So you can talk about your feelings, your stories, whatever you think in life, what affects you, what inspires you throughout what you create.

03:07My stories are full of different inspirations, different, let's say, atmospheres.

03:14Like when you look at my jewellery you can feel that, okay, it is oriental, but yet it has also some different flavour, like fusion flavours.

03:24My best-selling, let's say, best-selling collection which held the name of Damascene Jasmine.

03:32I created this around seven years ago when my country was going through the difficulties and the political situation.

03:39So it was painful for all our Syrian people how the country was being destroyed.

03:45I was talking about the Syrian house in this collection.

03:50The jasmine was there in every single house in Syria.

03:53So it reminds me of my country and the good old days.

03:58So this is one of the collections which made me look at jewellery design in a different eye.

04:06Because this was the first collection that I did as a mass product.

04:09Until today we have big sales of this collection.

04:14Expression is my world.

04:17I love to express, I love to talk about the things in life that are not always spoken.

04:26Sometimes we need to express in different ways.

04:30The indirect way is more interesting.

04:33So all the arts, they focus on the unspoken language.

04:38This is my jasmine collection.

04:40This is my first mass product, first collection that I did in quantities.

04:45Usually I do one of a kind pieces.

04:48So it was based on the flower which is the story of every house in Syria.

04:54And this is the leaf.

04:56So the flower is made of mother of pearl, golden diamond.

05:01And the leaf is made of the stone malachite.

05:05We have done this in several different sizes, different even techniques.

05:12So some of them are fully with diamond, some of them only with gold.

05:17It's all handmade, even the stones they are crafted by hand.

05:23As much as we do use very high technology, also we cannot ignore the efforts of the artists.

05:30So here is my latest collection which is what I call it is 40 Laws of Love.

05:3640 Laws of Love is based on calligraphy.

05:39I'm using Arabic calligraphy and Latin calligraphy.

05:43Some of the pieces they have poets as well.

05:46This type of art, cameo making is famous in Italy, in Napoli to be defined.

05:54So this is one of the samples we did.

05:56The frame is made of lapis lazuli as a base on the stone and silver gold plated.

06:09For more information visit www.narang.com

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